Table of Contents

Operational Characteristics of the USS King

The Fast Task Force Escort

The USS King belonged to a new class of ships, the Guided Missile Frigate. She was the culmination of many years of design planning. In the book U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History (copyright 1982 Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, MD), Norman Friedman describes the process and the thinking behind the design of these new ships. Mr. Friedman and the Naval Institute Press have been kind enough to grant us permission to reprint that section of the book.